Shell’s “Web Communications”

Message to Simon Saville – Communication is a two-way process

I only recognised a handful of names in the list of the 300 Shell appointments leaked on this website. One of them was the chap announced as ” VP Web Communications” my old colleague Simon Saville. Now if my memory serves me right Simon once took over from me in a Shell International communications job – in the mid 1990s I think.

Good that he is prospering still! I wonder if Simon remembers that in my handover I waffled on about how communications is a two-way process. Sure it’s about having nice stories and statements and announcements in the media – but it is also about having mechanisms whereby stakeholders can respond to these things.

So lets have a look at Shell’s “Web Communications” – much of it is elegant and informative. Some of it is pure propaganda and too much is bullshit. But that is just my opinion. So where on www.shell.com can I offer these opinions – where can I enter into a dialogue with Shell? Nowhere – at least not anywhere that I have found so far. There used to be a part of the site called “Tell Shell” and that was an actively used area. True some of the posts were vitriolic and even borderline libellous. But much of the content was fair comment and commentators, like me, took Shell at their word that they did welcome being “told”. I wonder if Simon Saville remembers what Shell said just a few years ago:

“Tell Shell” – tell us what you think. We really do want to hear your views – about Shell or our reports – about the issues we covered and anything we didn’t”. You can “Tell Shell” by joining the global debate at www.shell.com/tellshell”

SHELL BLOG

Comments

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: So Shell has been caught with its pants down again, telling blatant lies, this time about the cleanliness of gas. All so that it can improve its clean credentials and make even more $$$. Can we believe anything they tell us? Where would we be without the likes of Friends of the Earth who bring Shell to task. Where does it say we are allowed to lie and mislead in our business principles? This is a great message from the leaders to the worker bees "Do as we say, not as we do". Im sure the paid Shell apologists will come on here and tell us we shouldnt pick on Shell and they are a caring company and we should be greatful for working for them and that John Donovan is to blame.

Bogus Group: A media article has revealed that Shell is already suffering from the legacy of BG Group negligence in maintaining safety critical equipment. The HSE have issued an improvement notice for failing to install gas detection equipment on the Lomond Platform, despite recommendations from two separate studies. A second improvement notice was issued for failing to test a High Integrity Protection System (HIPS) since 2014, despite the associated Performance Standard requirement to test annually. It could be assumed that Finlayson encouraged the infamous Brent TFA during his tenure at the helm of BG to maximise production volumes (an obsession with executives), at the expense of safety system testing. That assumption would not be entirely accurate, the same culture was evident in BG Group long before. Previous failures of a HIPS testing regime had been exposed at another BG operational location, yet despite this no one was held accountable. Maybe if they had been the ‘management team’ in question would not have been implanted in Aberdeen in 2012.
SEE: Shell gets two Lomond warnings from HSE

Who ya kiddin?: This Lower Forever strategy is something that has so obviously been dreamt up by HR and the bean counters so that the company can justify all the savage cost cutting and job culling. I find the company tactics revolting. Anyone with half a brain cell in the oil world knows that its only a matter of time before oil starts to motor upwards.

The second leak, a story in itself, but also what leaked, (HF) hydrogen fluoride is a very dangerous gas when it reacts with the atmosphere, also very harmful to health, look it up. Article does not say what volumes involved but the closure of this super sized plant is a big deal commercially apart from reputation issues.

Doomcaster: As much as I like some of Bill Campbell's articles this latest one is just going a bit too far. there are so many variables which will change the prognosis here that its almost impossible to predict the leakage potential of Prelude. The major ones are location and hydrocarbon profile. I wonder what Bill Campbell would advocate as a solution? It almost appears as if he wants to be in a position to say "I told you so" and not in a supportive mode of "this is what you could do". The safety cases for Prelude do of course look at spill scenarios and remediation is the key, none of us at Shell is naive enough to believe in the 100% carbon loss free situation but common sense, good engineering and good training will do a lot to combat what Bill sees as the inevitable. armchair criticism at its best.

SFA (Say F All): Reading Bill's comments has inspired me to chime in. Ruthless cost cutting is leading to such HSE incidents. The sacking of skilled and experienced staff is taking place all over the place. The risk level is being seen as acceptable where there is heavy cost injection required to be on the safe side. Nobody dares question this due to the HR assassins that are currently patrolling the corridors looking for their next victims.

'avin a larf!: You have to laugh when you read these documents which HR have produced. It must have been written by someone with verbal diarrhea. Expressions like "Focusing capability from both an organisational and locational design perspective to drive productivity, ideation and promote Agile ways of working" show just how far these people are away from the rest of us at the coal face. Some of the invented words (ideation) are superb ! I guess this is all to protect the jobs in HR as someone has to translate this BS into what happens in the real world. It appears we have regressed into the bad old days of buzzword bingo, how many buzzwords can we put into one document. Sigh.

The Fugitive: I am grateful for the information I read in the New York Times as being in the US we are far from whats happening in the American hating HQ. Such job culling decisions are made behind the scenes without just cause or any consultation and then we are told about it when all the decisions are already made. As for this being stolen property, I would love to see Shell try to take John Donovan to the courts again. I'm sure he and his attorney are licking their lips at such a (butt kicking) prospect.

REPLY BY JOHN

Sorry, no prospect of Shell suing me. I have a Shell internal communication stating that they decided long ago that any legal action against me is ruled out. Too much "internal laundry" that they do not want revealed in open court. So I have a free hand to say and publish whatever I want about Shell without fear of retribution. Always sticking to the truth, but perhaps prone to exaggeration as "Cash All Gone" suggests in the nicest possible way.

Cash All Gone: The "leaked" document is not so dramatic as you make it seem - every Shell employee can freely access it, including all the to-be org charts. Everyone should already have had a 1-on-1 conversation with their line manager on whether their job is at risk or not. So Shell is actually very transparently approaching this. On the VP musical chairs - numbers quoted are 50% of VPs would have to leave, and GM level even more. So the cull really cuts right through it...

Shell Job Cuts: How do we know that the Shell document referred to in the Reuters article is not fake? If genuine, and therefore stolen property, why would Shell allow you to publish any of the content?

REPLY BY JOHN DONOVAN

Shell was given the opportunity days ago by myself and more recently by Reuters to take issue with the authenticity of the 88 page document. I supplied extracts and offered BvB sight of the whole document in a security sanitised form. Shell had the option to ask me not to publish (I have accommodated high level requests from Shell previously when grounds were provided) or could have sought an injunction. Shell knew it was authentic and kindly provided comment for Reuters to use in their article.

Good News: PS Cadfael, why do you assume I am a man?

Good News: Cadfael, clearly you're living in the past. It sounds like you are one of those folks who expect you have a job for life. The staff numbers especially in the Head Offices have always been bloated and a legacy of high oil prices. Ben and his management team have taken what most sensible boards would have done. Look, for example, at the costs in Deepwater which have been reduced by over 50% by prudent management and getting rid of the 'good old boy' network. I agree it is not nice for people to lose their jobs, thankfully a lot of the losses have been with the older guys who ran laughing all the way to the bank leaving some of us in good positions. Yes I will look over my back but Shell isn't the only company in the world and people need to realize that protection of jobs comes at a cost. As for Ben looking "an aging, sorry, tired figure", I have never heard so much rubbish. I saw him two days ago and your statement could not be further from the truth. Sad false news I'm afraid.

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